BOMBAY. [From the Melbourne Argus.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 853, 5 October 1853, Page 5

BOMBAY. [From the Melbourne Argus.]

We hate the Bombay Gazette till 30th July. The following are exiracta : — The h.adi of Sir Cbarlei Wood's new India Bill reached as by last overland mail. It is quie at liberal, and promises as well for India as anything ibat was generally eipected 'here. Bat the publicity and discusiion beiug given to

Indian affairs in England is worth more than . any changes in the forms of Government. We want publicity and responsibility, — things that have never yet been in India ; but we seem coining to it ; and by consequence there seem better days in store for us than we have ever yet seen. The second "Burmese war is at an end. The Government of India has been unable to compel the king of Ava to sign a treaty giving over Pegu to the British power ; but that province has been not the less formally taken possession of, and it now remains a portion of the British Indian Empire, occupied by a British force " amply adequate for its defence, and fully prepared for the event of war." Lord Bilhousie was to leave Calcutta for the Hooghly districts on the 10th instant. Sir Henry Pottinger, the Governor of Madras, the papers of that Presidency say, is positively going home in the course of the next three months «t farthest, and they assign as a reason, that the nature of his recent correspondence with j the Home Authorities has not been so satisfactory as to render a more prolonged residence in Madras desirable. The Commander-in-Cbief, Sir Richard Armstrong, ii also said to have sent in his resignation, and it is gent rally supposed that Sir Harry Smith will be bis Excellency's successor. The rumour of the earthquake at Stanz, of which we made mention in our summary of the 20th ultimo, is confirmed by later intelligence received here per Honorable Company's schooner Euphrates, just arrived from the Persian Gulf. The number of lives lost is still stated at 10,000, but of course allowance must be made for Asiatic exaggeration. The Poona Observer has it that it was rumoured at Poona that orders had been received by Government by the last Overland Mail regarding the preparation of a force to be sent from Bombay to Egypt, in case of a war breaking out betwixt Russia and the Sublime Forte. Earthquake in Persis..-— On the 30th of May the towns of Shiraz and Cnshan were levelled to the ground by a violent earthquake, destroying 15,000 souls in the former and 3000 in the latter place, and entirely drying up the fine river Zaianderood, upon which the town of Isphahan in a great measure depends for its supply of water. The drying-up of the river was followed by an extraordinary flight of locusts, which in a few hours laid waste the luxuriant crops of wheat and barley, and destroyed the blossoms' of the fruit trees. At Khorassan a pestilence broke out in the month of Rejeh (April), and typhus fever of the most deadly nature was raging throughout Astrabad, Mazraderan, and the Turcoman Desert ; whilst at Teherao, on the 16th May, where cholera morbrjs was carrying off no less than 150 sonls per day, an inundation had swept away eight dwelling-houses, a public bath, the ice dep6t, and several men, women, and children. Fortunately for the city — for otherwise the consequences to life and property would have been much more serious — the water from the fosse or ditch which surrounds it burst on to the plain, washing away the most luxuriant crops of corn and forests of fruit trees, with a number of horses and other cattle. In the midst of all these calamities, whilst bis Majesty the Shan and his Court have fled to Imama, the Prime Minister and his relatives carry out their diabolical system of oppression of the poor, turning a deaf ear to the petitions and complaint! of the peple, unless accompanied by a fee ; and such is the extent of this corrupt practice, that in sums of 20s. and 40s. the minister is reported to have amassed the princely fortune of half a million of tumans, which are said to have been secretly remitted to Russia, whither he will before hag no doubt repair, to enjoy this ill— gotten wealth — the aooner the better, for his evil doings are a blot on the reign of Nester-ud-deeo, arbo has lately taken into favor an individual of a totally opposite character — the adjutant Bachee, a personage of great merit and extraordinary talent, well worthy in every respect to fill the vacancy, when it occurs, with honor to the sovereign and benefit to the country. By a late royal decree he has been created a knight of the distinguished order of the Portrait, and appointed to the important office of generalissimo of the Sbsh'c army. The relations between the Sbab and the representative of Great Britain are, through the intrigues of Russia, upon anything but a cordial footing. We learn from Malta that Colonel Sheil, Her Majesty's representative at the Persian Court, arrived at that island on the 20th, in the City of London, Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer, and was to leave about the 23rd for Marseilles, en route for England, in the Euxine, belonging to the same Company, accompanied by his lady and two children. His Excellency returns to England on sick leave, Mr. Thompson, the Secretary of Legation, remaining as charge d'affaires.